The story begins...

Dear friends & family,

As most of you know, my fiance Brent, has a congenital heart defect. He has had 7 open heart surgeries in his 27 years of life! His most recent surgery was November 19, 2007. During that surgery, his pulmonic valve was replaced, or he was given a "tune-up" as he likes to say. Unfortunately his previous pulmonic valve had fused to a rib and they ended up taking a rib out as well. Since that surgery, his heart has been "exposed" and you can visually see it beating through his clothing even. Over the past 2 months, we've been noticing that it was getting more prominent but we attributed it to the fact that he was working out more: doing a lot of push-ups, running, etc. We thought maybe his chest muscle was pushing out more. However, over the past month, people in Brent's life have really started to notice more and more that his chest is pulsing and it's been very noticeable. Most recently, Brent was in a friend's wedding and the boutonniere was pinned directly over his heart and moving quite a bit. It was somewhat amusing to the guests. :)

Anyways, I praise God for the following: Brent meets with his cardiologist every 6 months. We last met with his cardiologist in February, just 4 months ago. His next scheduled appointment would've been while we were on our honeymoon. His cardiologist is vacationing most of July and we are gone for part of August, so his doctor said "Let's go ahead and get you in here earlier rather than later." Praise God for that! We had an appointment with his cardiologist yesterday and Brent mentioned that he thought his heart was beating more noticeably out of his chest. The cardiologist and a cardiologist fellow were both in there and I heard the cardiologist say to the fellow "I've been following Brent for a long time and this is not normal." My heart absolutely sank at the point because I knew something was wrong and it was very unexpected. Brent immediately had an Echocardiogram (ultrasound of his heart) and they found a small hole that was leaking a large amount of blood into his chest wall space where the more prominent heartbeat is showing. Even as a healthcare professional, I am a little unsure of the details because I immediately went into shock mode, and selfishly thinking I wasn't ready for another heart surgery right now, that I couldn't handle the emotional roller coaster that was now upon us. The cardiologist called me over, put his arm around me and pointed out on the Echo the hole and the problem and tried to explain it to me professionally, but all I could think was "Please God, no no no, not right now, we're supposed to get married in 7 weeks." Brent had a few more tests done and was immediately referred to his cardiac surgeon in Orange County.

We are meeting with the surgeon on Monday (we are awaiting the surgeon's phone call) and Brent will likely be having heart surgery #8 on Monday. It should not be a full sternotomy (where they cut open his chest) but rather a more "minor" procedure for Brent. (Most people would consider it a major procedure but Brent has been through a lot!) As I said, we have not spoken with the surgeon yet, but his cardiologist thinks that they should be able to place a cardiac catheter in his femoral artery (in his leg) to put him on cardiopulmonary bypass and then make an incision over his chest to "stitch up" the hole that is causing the blood pooling. Hopefully it will be an easy procedure with a shorter recovery than his last heart surgery and everything is still in place for our August 9th wedding!

Best case scenario (and Brent has always had the best case scenarios with his surgeries!), he will have surgery on Monday and we'll be back in San Diego recovering on Wednesday or Thursday. Originally we were supposed to fly to Atlanta on Thursday for some last minute wedding planning, but I am not sure if that will happen. On the positive side, since Brent did have a rib unexpectedly removed during his last surgery, the surgeon might now be able to place a prosthetic rib in with this surgery and that would be a huge blessing as his heart would not be exposed!

I am writing this email and asking you for prayer, prayer, and more prayer. Brent's heart is fragile and has already been through 7 surgeries. As a faithful servant, I trust God but as a healthcare professional, unfortunately I know a lot about medicine and surgeries are very grueling on the body. I have absolute faith that he will be fine, recover, and we will have a beautiful wedding on August 9th. I was just very surprised and not expecting having to witness another of Brent's heart surgeries for about 8-10 more years.

Please pray for Brent's surgeons, nurses, and everyone involved in his surgery. Please pray that God gives them all wisdom to fix him, guides their hands during surgery, and that God watches over Brent in the operating room. Please pray for us emotionally, that we will stay strong, focused, and remember God has a plan for our lives and that this surgery is no surprise to God...in fact it's all part of His will. Please pray for Brent's future health, that the next surgery will be many many years away.

I will try to keep everyone updated this next week. I know we will be fine and this weekend we are just trying to spend a lot of quality time together and continuing on like nothing changed. Brent is a very strong person and takes it all in stride. I am learning to be a very strong person. :) I simply ask for prayer. Thanks everyone, sorry to be the bearer of bad news!

God bless,
Rachel